League of Woman Voters of PA

Julie Kollar

League of Woman Voters of PA

WREN Office

116 Chestnut Lane

North Wales, PA 19454

Dear Julie,

This is our Interim Progress Report for Kids Spreading Pride: McDannell Run Improvements.

During July and August we watered and cared for our rain garden and talked to the neighbors about watersheds, raingardens and riparian buffer zones. A few of the neighbors helped with our rain garden and we also worked with Master Gardeners to design and plant a CommunityVegetableGarden.

We had an article in the Erie Times-News in June before the funding for this project began but we posted it at the Kid’s Club and shared the article with the residents and administrators at the John E. Horan Garden Apartments where our rain garden is located.

In August we learned about the International Coastal Clean-up; we designed and passed out flyers inviting residents to join us for the clean-up on Saturday morning September 20th, 2008.

The International Coastal Clean-up was a great success. Fortyvolunteers participated and in 3 hours we collected 1008 pounds of garbage and cleaned 2 miles of riparian buffer zone on each side of the creek. Our most unusual find was a dead stiff cat with it paws hooked onto a tree branch. We had a total of 30 bags of garbage; our top 3 items were cigarette butts-757; plastic bags-205; food wrappers-203.

We had an article in the Earth Force Summer Newsletterand the PLEWA Winter Newsletter.

During the fall we looked at slides of Andy Goldswothy to learn about site specific art, and discussed how art can shape specific places – the environment around it. We hope to use art to strengthen our environmental message to the residents at the John E. Horan Garden Apartments. We also designed 3 sets of promotional materials which will be submitted to the PLEWA and Earth Force and Erie Housing Authority Newsletters and Erie Times-News, Newspaper in Education. The topics are the McDannell Run Watershed, the International Coastal Clean-up and the CommunityVegetableGarden. The first two are directly related to the WREN Project.

Our upcoming activities will include;

Identifying venues for the oral presentations including the Youth Summit

Follow-up on the publication of the promotional materials

Learn more about site specific art and determine how it will be utilized at the John E. Horan Garden Apartments

Recruit residents for the Great PA Clean-up

Participate in the Great PA Clean-up

Submit info to the PLEWA and Earth Force web page

Write the article for the Earth Force Yearbook

Involve the Burton-Diehl Neighborhood Association and the House of Mercy Earth Force students in the project

The following materials were referred to in the report and are included:

Promotional materials:

International Coastal Clean-up

McDannell Run Watershed Project

CommunityVegetableGarden

International Coastal Clean-up Summary

McDannell Run Summary

Earth Force Newsletter with article

PLEWA Newsletter with article

ErieTimesNewsRainGarden Article

The signatures of the partners are below and the financial report is also enclosed.

Sincerely,

Pat Lupo, OSB

Program Director

JohnE.HoranGarden Apartments

House of Mercy Earth Force

PennsylvaniaLakeErie Watershed Association

Erie Times News in Education